Today, when on this most auspicious occasion, I set my foot on this most sacred earth, I felt the vibration of this ashram and all of you. I can't tell you how happy I was!

With the grace of Sri Mahaprabhuji's lotus feet I have visited many sacred ashrams and had the occasion to be on the sacred sites many times. But when I set my foot on this most sacred place, I entered such a consciousness that I forgot myself, the universe, I forgot the world and just felt bliss and happiness so deeply that I cannot put it into words. At the same time the thought started coming into my mind and heart: "Who is this great man who has done tapas (penance) for thousands of years?"

With whose great tapasya with the inspiration of the Divine Mother Jagadishvari Shri Siddha Siddheshwari and of Lord Haidakhan has arrived here and made this her sacred place? Believe me, when I say that this place will one day become the most leading center of the Western world. As far as spiritual knowledge is concerned, the whole world believes India is the leading country and for the material knowledge, the Western world is foremost. But I feel that knowledge, the sun of knowledge, will rise from this place in the world.

The incarnation of Lord Herakhandi Bihari Deva has taken place to give the benefit of true knowledge and bliss to the whole world. With His infinite compassion and grace, Sri Mahaprabhuji remained with us for more than 5.700 days. It was his divine grace that He gave darshan to thousands of people, but at the same time there were many who were there but did not have the grace to have His darshan. When He wanted to grace some people, He called them from thousands of miles to Him. Some were called from thousands and thousands of miles away. Some were a few miles away. Some were just near, but they just did not have the occasion to have His darshan, because it was just not their destiny.

Sri Mahaprabhuji renewed the fire ceremony which prevailed in ancient times. He demonstrated how to perform it and gave it to us in a very simple form, since it had disappeared with the passage of time.

Before the creation of this universe, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara (that is Shiva) used to perform yagnas to the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother was pleased by this and gave them each a boon: Brahma was to create the universe, Vishnu was to preserve it and Shiva to destroy it. That is why it is said that the fire ceremony is like support of the earth.

How could Sri Mahaprabhuji give a boon to the world without performing yagnas? This is why He showed us how to do it.

The fire-ceremony, or yagna, is based on scientific principles. In the fire-ceremony, when you give an offering to a particular deity, it reaches that particular deity in its totality. In the Vedas it is written that the mouth of the gods is fire -- Agni. To whichever god you are giving the offering, by saying the mantra and adding the name of that god plus the word swaha, it makes the offering complete. That is, you reach that particular god. The wife of Agni, the lord fire, is swaha.

To give a simple example: When you want to send money to someone in another place, you fill in a money-order form and with that money-order form you mention the name and address of the person who is to receive the money. Then you go to the post office. You are charged the money and get a receipt, after which the entire responsibility of how to send it , where to send it, to whom to send it, is with the post-office. It is no longer your business.

That is why our only duty is to chant the mantra with faith, devotion and the proper pronunciation. Take the name of the god to whom we are offering this ahuti, this offering, and then give it to the fire.

The law of nature, of life, is to give and take, as a farmer will sow a seed of rice in his field. He sows one seed but in return he gets much more than what he has sown. No computer can give you an account of how many billions of times it has given you more in return than what you sowed. That one grain of rice which you had sown, until such time as it goes bad, will continue to give you tons and tons of rice -- unless it goes bad -- for when it goes bad, naturally, it can't produce anymore.

And it would be indeed very selfish of us, that, when the Divine gives us so much food, so much grain to pacify our hunger, gives us water to quench our thirst, we just keep on eating and drinking. But it is absolutely justified that when the Divine is giving us so much, we should in return offer something back to the Divine and not just keep on eating it for our selfish pleasure. That's why we offer to the fire. When we receive so much grain to pacify the fires of hunger in our stomach, we should first offer of whatever we are eating, whatever we are receiving, a little offering to the fire to pacify it. Also give a little food or offering to those people who are hungry, to pacify the fire of their hunger.

And that's why it is said that a person who doesn't offer anything to the fire in a yagna or to the hungry people, and just keeps eating for himself, he is eating in a very sinful way because he is only concerned with his own selfish hunger, with his own self. That's why he or she can never reach the spiritual heights of the purity of soul.

(Sri Shastriji has just recited this Vedic mantra which says that the person who cooks only for himself or herself is a sinner because he or she does not share it with anyone.)

Sri Mahaprabhuji showed this to us as long as He was with us in His physical body. He never took leave from the fire ceremony. Everyday he performed a yagna. Besides His daily yagnas, Sri Mahaprabhuji performed 171 very big yagnas in which hundreds of thousands of people came. He spent millions of rupees just on the fire ceremony and feeding poor people. Just as He performed the fire ceremony, the same way He satisfied the fire of people's hunger: all of you, or many of you, have witnessed that in Haidakhan. Every day many people -- 20,50,100 -- were fed by Him. He pacified the fires of their hunger.

Sri Mahaprabhuji gave us the practical example. When He Himself, the Divine, performed the yagna and gave food to the poor people, this meant that you, common man, should follow my example, because by doing so, by giving food to the poor, to the hungry, by performing yagnas, you are doing good to your own soul. It is an act to obtain happiness, bliss and peace in life, so follow the example.

There are many instances in the cultural history of India, of great kings of the past, Ambrish Nabhak, etc., of kings who performed yagnas, who gave away their whole kingdoms, their prosperity, their money, everything they had, using it up for doing these yagnas, until eventually one of them had just one earthen pot left. He had given everything to the fire. (I mean he used up everything to pay the expenses of the fire ceremonies). He lived in the jungle with just an earthen bowl. Once a rishi came to him for something and the king said, "Your holiness, take this pot, for it is all I have and I am offering it to you."

Sometimes it happens that a child, when it is born, becomes the owner of millions and millions of rupees (or francs). He has acres and acres of land. He has everything that a man could ask for. This is his destiny. While at the same time, another child is born who has no father, the mother is poor, so that the child doesn't even have the means to be given milk, of any food. His only sustenance is the name of the Lord. He can only repeat "Rama, Rama." This is the destiny of two children, born at the same time.

The one who has been blessed with all the prosperity, all the wealth of the world, is the one who, in his past incarnation, had fed the needy, who had done the yagnas, and the result of his good deeds was that he got everything when he was born. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

And the other one who was born in the poor house, where he had to strive for even a grain of food, was the one who in his previous life had not done anything to collect any good deed, any good karma. That's why he was given nothing, even though the same Divine had created these two children.

It is written in the Vedas that when you meet a person, you can immediately know what this person's past karmas have been, through the way he or she is born and through the way they live. It is obvious what their karmas were.

Sri Mahapbhuji knew therefore the root-cause to give happiness to mankind and that's why he started pleasing the gods first for the benefit of mankind, by doing yagnas. We all have seen the result of what Sri Mahaprabhuji did. Before He appeared, India always had to beg the United States for food grains. We were always the beggars and they were always the givers. They kept on giving us millions of tons of food every year. After Sri Mahaprabhuji appeared and had started performing yagnas, India had a grain revolution. Now the same land is growing much food. We have bumper crops. Now there is so much grain in stock that the government doesn't have enough places to store it. We certainly don't have to ask any other country for more grain.

As long as one can afford it, one should always perform both kinds of yagnas. The first yagna is to feed humans. The second to feed the fire. I could tell you much more about this first principle, but as there is little time, I will come to the second principle.

(Sri Shastriji is now discussing the second principle that is Sri Mahaprabhuji's ritual of giving chandan.)

In India, our forefathers always put chandan on their foreheads every day, but the same Indian people, in present times, behave very differently: For instance, we have a custom that when a son-in-law comes to marry the daughter, the mother-in-law, on receiving him, puts the tika, (a sign) on his forehead and then gives the bride away. Then the groom, the moment he left the house, would take out his handkerchief and wipe his forehead.

When Sri Mahaprabhuji started the ritual of applying chandan, the same people of India -- barristers, lawyers, doctors, actors -- all the fashionable people, used to queue up and vie with each other about who should be the first one to whom Sri Mahaprabhuji would apply chandan.

There is great importance in applying chandan, for it changes the lines of your destiny. Maybe most of you have heard or read about the famous story of Lord Krishna and his childhood friend Sudhama. The story goes that Lord Krishna, when he was a child and studying in Sandipani's ashram, had a brahmin friend who was from a very poor family. His name was Sudhama. Both of them studied together and were great friends. Then, when they had finished their studies, Krishna came to Mathura and became the king, and Sudhama went back to his father's house, because he was a poor brahmin. With the passage of time, his poverty became more and more acute. He had children and his wife kept on telling him that, "We are so poor that we don't have enough food or milk to give our children. And they are suffering. We are all suffering. What is the use of you having a friend who is a king, who has got everything? Why don't you go to him and ask for some help?" And Sudhama, who was basically a very shy person, did not want to take advantage of his friendship with the king, so he kept on refusing to go. But his wife was desperate, and one day she literally forced her husband to go to Krishna and ask for help.

Sudhama was very badly dressed because he was so poor. He had all his clothes torn. He had not even sufficient clothes to put around his body. When he came, Krishna recognized that it was the poor brahmin who had studied with him in the rishi Sandipan's ashram. As he was a brahmin, according to the custom, he called for a bowl of gold and some water and washed Sudhama's feet in a golden plate. After washing them, he took the water as prasad. And, Krishna made Sudhama sit with him on his personal throne of kings, of the Kingdom of Dvarika. Then Lakshmi, who is the wife of Vishnu (in Krishna's incarnation, she was the queen Rukmini), said to Krishna: "Oh, my master, what is this? What is this irony of fate that you are the king of Dwarka and your friend is such poor-man brahmin? This is very bad." So Lord Krishna started laughting and said: "My Queen, why are you worried? It is the result of his karma." So the queen said: "My Lord, you are a divine being who can change the laws of karma." The queen kept on insisting and eventually Krishna relented and said, "Very well, bring chandan."

As Sri Mahaprabhuji used to apply chandan on our foreheads, the same way, when Rukmini had brought the bowl of chandan, Krishna held the head of Sudhama and put chandan on his forehead. Then Lord Krishna said, "Lakshmi-Rukimini, on his forehead is written 'KSHA-YA-SHRI' which means 'annihilation of prosperity,' that there is no prosperity on his forehead."

Lord Krishna continued saying, "But when I applied chandan on his forehead, I wiped out YA-KSHA and the opposite appeared. "YAKSHA SHRI" which means "treasurer of the gods and treasurer of the world bank." So Sudhama became the master of all the banks' money.

When Sudhama came home, his mud hut had gone and instead he had a palace. So he prayed to the Lord, saying, "You were so kind and gracious that with your divine hands you took hold of my head and applied chandan, changing thus my destiny so that I have become the most prosperous man on earth." And this is the great importance of chandan. And that's why Sri Mahaprabhuji changed the destiny and luck of all of us -- you, me and everyone -- by putting chandan on our forehead, he changed the lines of our destiny.

Every man and every woman has the chandan lines on their foreheads, even without chandan. You have a look into the mirror: either you have the three lines like this ( ), or like this ( ). These are the lines of fortune written by destiny. Those people who really know about reading the future, they don't look at your palm. They don't look at your face. They don't need to look at your horoscope either. They just look at your forehead and the lines on it, and they can tell you what is your destiny. What is your future life.

I want to share with you the principles of Sri Mahaprabhuji, the knowledge of which He showered on me with His grace in the thirteen years and more days I spent with Him. I am an old man and I am going to die soon, but Sri Mahaprabhuji has bestowed such grace on me. He has sent me to you in my old age. I would like to give you whatever I have got from Sri Mahaprabhuji through His grace. I want to share with you everything He told me with His infinite grace, for I should not be a selfish man and take all that grace with me when I die. I want to give to the people in this world whatever I have received through Sri Mahaprabhuji by His infinite grace. He used always to distribute whatever we offered to Him, and He never kept anything for himself -- immediately He used to give things away as prasad. In the same way, this prasad which He gave me with His grace, I want to give and share with you all.

With the Divine Grace of Sri Mahaprabhuji, I threw some light on two principles of Sri Mahaprabhuji's teachings: chandan and the fire ceremony, yagna. I shared with you in a very short manner whatever had to be told.